NVIDIA processes or apps to remove for performance

[NGXfanatic 85]

I have the Nvidia driver 311.06, which I installed earlier this year.   Things are great, but I was curious about some of the "bloat" I see on my system and wanted to trim as much unnecessary apps/services as possible.

I have noticed quite a few apps associated with the Nvidia driver and wanted to run these by the experts here to see if I can get rid of any ballast to improve system performance.  I don't believe I saw so many extra services with earlier driver iterations, or maybe I didn't notice, but with the emergence of higher fidelity FSX addons and my 3 year old system starting to exhibit more OOMs than I thought possible, I need to put my OS on a diet!

 

Do I need all 4 of these processes?

 

 

Also, I see a service called Nvidia Stereoscopic 3D Driver service, not sure if that is really needed either.

 

Please note, I only use FSX as a "game", I have no other games to speak of installed, so I would think that things like 3D or PhysX related are not necessary. 

 

Thanks for your attention!

 

[ti_dabbelju 6]

During the driver install I deselected the physX option, so that is definitely optional.

I wouldn't kill any other nVidia processes. Check out Game Booster it helps you shut down other unneeded tasks. 

[lodestar 186]

 

 

Please note, I only use FSX as a "game", I have no other games to speak of installed

 

Then select to install only driver, not all components. But you don't get OOM becouse of that: apply this fix http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947246 

Then check your settings, limit texture to max 2048 in fsx.cfg, before each flight - disable all scenery that will not be used(all payware and all default continents that you don't need for that flight), use DXT optimized REX clouds and you should be fine

[Jim Young 2,356]

 

 

I see a service called Nvidia Stereoscopic 3D Driver service, not sure if that is really needed either.

 

If you do not use 3D glasses with FSX, you can disable this service.  There is also an option installing the NVIDIA drivers to not install these drivers.  Do not disable the Driver Helper service.

 

Perhaps this guide will be of assistance - http://www.tweakguides.com/NVFORCE_4.html.

 

Best regards,

Jim

[NGXfanatic 85]

Thanks for the replies folks, I have learned a lot.  I thought I had checked off the "driver only" option when I first installed the driver, I must have missed that.

 

During the driver install I deselected the physX option, so that is definitely optional.

I wouldn't kill any other nVidia processes. Check out Game Booster it helps you shut down other unneeded tasks. 

I just started using Game Booster again, it helps with winnowing down the list of unneeded overhead.   I'm also looking at AlacrityPC, but it seems to be harder to setup, and I keep getting a persistent startup error preventing me from even using it.   I think I'll just stick to Game Booster.

 

Then select to install only driver, not all components. But you don't get OOM becouse of that: apply this fix http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947246

Then check your settings, limit texture to max 2048 in fsx.cfg, before each flight - disable all scenery that will not be used(all payware and all default continents that you don't need for that flight), use DXT optimized REX clouds and you should be fine

I applied the MS OOM fix supplied in the link, but sadly, it hasn't helped.  I used to use REX clouds, at 512x512 for the cumulus sets, but still had the OOMs.   I now use the freeware HDE v2.0 512x512 clouds/sky texture, and got the dreaded OOM at the end of a long flight in mostly clear skies.  So, I'm thinking I have to manage my sliders better, in addition to using Game Booster before I launch FSX.

 

The suggestion to disable unused scenery or continents, I'm not sure about that one.  I thought all FSX scenery was not loaded into RAM, just the scenery in a 100nm or so radius of your flight.   Nonetheless, I will exclude payware airports I don't use if they are within flying distance of my flight and I fear they may take up RAM or CPU cycles.

[lodestar 186]

Thanks for the replies folks, I have learned a lot.  I thought I had checked off the "driver only" option when I first installed the driver, I must have missed that.

 

I just started using Game Booster again, it helps with winnowing down the list of unneeded overhead.   I'm also looking at AlacrityPC, but it seems to be harder to setup, and I keep getting a persistent startup error preventing me from even using it.   I think I'll just stick to Game Booster.

 

I applied the MS OOM fix supplied in the link, but sadly, it hasn't helped.  I used to use REX clouds, at 512x512 for the cumulus sets, but still had the OOMs.   I now use the freeware HDE v2.0 512x512 clouds/sky texture, and got the dreaded OOM at the end of a long flight in mostly clear skies.  So, I'm thinking I have to manage my sliders better, in addition to using Game Booster before I launch FSX.

 

The suggestion to disable unused scenery or continents, I'm not sure about that one.  I thought all FSX scenery was not loaded into RAM, just the scenery in a 100nm or so radius of your flight.   Nonetheless, I will exclude payware airports I don't use if they are within flying distance of my flight and I fear they may take up RAM or CPU cycles.

 

Game Booster? It's much better to use some guides and apply right settings manually. I recommend Word Not Allowed's guide for performance. And search on internet for some good windows 7 tuning guide, especially Nick's N guide which is made to tune OS for FSX. The best combination for me  You will see that with FSX is not all about sliders...

 

To avoid OOM's, set also texture max load to max 2048 in fsx.cfg, don't use 4096.

 

About scenery loading, to be onest - i'm not sure about default scenery loading. But i am sure that all enabled payware scenery will be loaded and will take a hit on virtual memory

[Tabs 2,790]

How much RAM is in your system? If it's a current machine with 8GB or 16GB or whatever then these are absolutely trivial amounts of memory being taken up by these services. FSX can never use more than 4GB and having free RAM just sitting there doing nothing is silly.

 

That said, when I install the Nvidia drivers I deselect everything except the driver and PhysX. (I play a couple games that can use PhysX like Planetside 2) That'll prevent most of this stuff from being there.

[Jim Young 2,356]

 

 

The suggestion to disable unused scenery or continents, I'm not sure about that one. I thought all FSX scenery was not loaded into RAM, just the scenery in a 100nm or so radius of your flight.

 

LOL!  That would be nice for sure!  If you want to check to see what is loaded when you start up FSX, download and install Process Monitor.  Start up Process Monitor then FSX.  After FSX has fully loaded, check the process monitor and you'll see exactly what scenery was loaded.

 

Best regards,

Jim

[NGXfanatic 85]

LOL!  That would be nice for sure!  If you want to check to see what is loaded when you start up FSX, download and install Process Monitor.  Start up Process Monitor then FSX.  After FSX has fully loaded, check the process monitor and you'll see exactly what scenery was loaded.

 

Best regards,

Jim

Wow, so all the scenery installed in the scenery library is loaded on initial startup?  And not only does that prolong startup time, it takes up RAM?   If so, I may think about disabling, say, European airports in the library.  Then, would I also disable UTX Europe?   I never thought that disabling entire swaths of outside scenery areas would really benefit performance, I wonder if I should consider doing that.

[NGXfanatic 85]

Game Booster? It's much better to use some guides and apply right settings manually. I recommend Word Not Allowed's guide for performance. And search on internet for some good windows 7 tuning guide, especially Nick's N guide which is made to tune OS for FSX. The best combination for me  You will see that with FSX is not all about sliders...

 

To avoid OOM's, set also texture max load to max 2048 in fsx.cfg, don't use 4096.

 

About scenery loading, to be onest - i'm not sure about default scenery loading. But i am sure that all enabled payware scenery will be loaded and will take a hit on virtual memory

 

I have followed the religion of NickN for ages, NickN since I started using FSX back in 2008, followed by *******/Bojote's cfg optimizations on top of Nick's suggestions.   Sprinkled with some of the latest findings from Word Not Allowed and others in the last 2 or so years.   So my OS/FSX setup is pretty much optimized as much as possible.   It's only very recently, since last fall, that OOMs have appeared.   I chalk it up to the increasing fidelity, and commensurate increase in hardware resource usage, of the latest addons.   NGX, GSX, Google Earth map monitoring with FSearth, 80-100% AI by UT2, too many addons to name, I think I have hit the limit of what my system can handle during long durations between complex scenery areas.   I'm probably guilty of having my sliders too high, the AI too dense, but I am now taking steps to mitigate their impact when I plan my flights.  Game booster is going to help, because I can't just run FSX by itself when I'm in cruise, I need to have a few other apps open (TOPCAT, Google Earth,Google Chrome) to keep myself occupied and/or monitor my flight performance, and I need to free as much RAM outside the 4 gig limit of FSX for those other RAM intensive apps.   At least, until I break down and finally upgrade my 3 year old system to the latest 8GB RAM or higher SB or IB system, I'd imagine I wouldn't need Game Booster or AlacrityPC with that powerful a setup.

 

 

How much RAM is in your system? If it's a current machine with 8GB or 16GB or whatever then these are absolutely trivial amounts of memory being taken up by these services. FSX can never use more than 4GB and having free RAM just sitting there doing nothing is silly.

 

That said, when I install the Nvidia drivers I deselect everything except the driver and PhysX. (I play a couple games that can use PhysX like Planetside 2) That'll prevent most of this stuff from being there.

With 6 gigs RAM, and the 4 gigs getting exhausted by FSX, I need to free up some resources unfortunately.   I thought those days were over, of carefully pruning the Windows Task Manager list of apps/services, but I hate having to monitor my Task Manager hoping I have some available RAM at the TOD point of flight after a 4 hour cross country trek in the NGX.

As mentioned above, I run a few other apps on top of FSX that I find necessary for true enjoyment of the sim, and squeezing as much performance from the 6 gigs RAM and 4.2 ghz 930 I7 is the best approach until my next hardware upgrade.